Manage development (or other) data using fixtures

Fixtures.rb

namespace :db do
  namespace :fixtures do
    task :dump, [:table] => [:environment] do |t, args|
      sql  = "SELECT * FROM %s"
      skip_tables = ["schema_info", "schema_migrations", "delayed_jobs", "sessions", "versions"]
      ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(Rails.env)
      
      tables = nil
      
      if args[:table].nil?
        puts 'dumping all tables'
        tables = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.tables - skip_tables
      else
        puts "dumping table: #{args[:table]}"
        tables = [args[:table]]
      end
      
      tables.each do |table_name|
        i = "000"
        File.open("#{Rails.root}/test/fixtures/#{table_name}.yml", 'w') do |file|
          data = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.select_all(sql % table_name)
          file.write data.inject({}) { |hash, record|
            hash["#{table_name}_#{i.succ!}"] = record
            hash
          }.to_yaml
        end
      end
    end
  end
  
  namespace :fixtures do
    task :load_single, [:table] => [:environment] do |t, args|
      require 'active_record/fixtures'
      ActiveRecord::Base.establish_connection(ActiveRecord::Base.configurations[Rails.env])
      ActiveRecord::Fixtures.create_fixtures("test/fixtures", [args[:table]])
      puts "Fixture #{args[:table]} loaded"
    end
  end
end